Gangmasters Licensing Authority

The Gangmasters Licensing Authority is an agency in the United Kingdom regulating the supply of workers to the agricultural, horticultural and shellfish industries. Employment agencies (labour providers) working in those fields have had to be licenced by the authority since 1 October 2006.

History

The agency is a non-departmental public body which was established on 1 April 2005 by the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004, passed as the result of the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster. The primary purpose of the authority is to prevent the exploitation of workers in the food production sector. It is based in Bilborough in north-west Nottingham.

Licensing

The GLA was set up to prevent the exploitation of workers, particularly by debt bondage and forced labour and to improve health and safety standards, in what had become an unregulated area of employment.

Businesses which provide labour in the following sectors need to be licensed:

• agriculture, including horticulture, forestry work, dairy farming, the production of consumable produce (whether for profit or not), the raising of animals that will enter the food chain, and the use of land as grazing, meadow or pasture land
• processing and packaging of products (food and drink) containing an agricultural component, any animal product that will enter the food chain, shellfish/fish products, plants/flowers/bulbs, and pet/animal feed
• gathering shellfish.

Until the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994, introduced by Conservative minister John Redwood, all such agencies would have needed to operate under such a scheme. This followed from the Employment Agencies Act 1973, which required all employment agencies to be licensed. The 1994 Act removed the licensing regime, though there have been renewed calls for its reintroduction, especially given the drive for the Temporary and Agency Worker (Equal Treatment) Bill.

Enforcement

Companies who use labour providers in these sectors are termed ‘labour users’, and have faced prosecution if they use workers or services provided by an unlicensed labour provider, since 1 December 2006.

Four specific offences have been established by the Act:

• Operating without a licence
• Obtaining or possessing a false licence or false documentation which is likely to cause another person to believe that a person acting as a gangmaster is licensed
• Using an unlicensed gangmaster (subject to a reasonable steps/due diligence defence)
• Obstruction of enforcement officers/compliance officers exercising their functions under the Act

Moves to create the Licensing Authority were spearheaded by the Temporary Labour Working Group, a coalition of the National Farmers Union, the Transport & General Workers' Union, the Food and Drink Federation, the British Retail Consortium and the Ethical Trading Initiative. Jim Sheridan introduced a Private Members Bill into Parliament early in 2004 and the Government adopted this bill following the deaths of 23 Chinese cockle pickers in the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster, England on 5 February 2004.

Powers of officers

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs can appoint "enforcement officers" to enforce the 2004 Act.

In England and Wales, and Northern Ireland, enforcement officers have certain powers of arrest (see below) in relation to the following offences:

• acting as an unlicensed gangmaster, and
• possessing a license that is false, improperly obtained or that belongs to someone else, with the intention of causing another person to believe they (or someone else) are a licensed gangmaster.

An enforcement officer may arrest:

• anyone who is about to commit such an offence,
• anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be about to commit such an offence, and
• if he has reasonable grounds for suspecting that such an offence has been committed, then anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be guilty of the offence.

This power is in addition to the "any person" power of arrest under section 24A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (or Article 26A of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 in Northern Ireland).

Criticism

Limited scope

The Trades Union Congress criticised the government for failing to extend the Authority's regime for gangmasters to sectors such as construction, hospitality and care work. It was estimated that at least 2 million workers were left out while UCATT, the building workers’ union, said that that one East European worker was paid only £8.80 for a 39-hour week.

Helpline

The GLA helpline (0845 602 5020) only provides for workers to report mistreatment and illegal pay rates in the GLA regulated sectors. The UK government has since set up the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (0800 917 2368) for all workers in the UK to report abuses.

See also

• 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster
• Agency Workers Directive
• Paul Chapple Whitehouse, appointed the Chairman of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority in 2005
• Temporary Labour Working Group
• UK agency worker law

External links

• Gangmasters Licensing Authority official website
• TGWU Campaign
• Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004
• The Gangmasters (Licensing Authority) Regulations 2005
• Pay & Work Rights Helpline

Video clips

• Gangmasters Licensing Authority YouTube channel